Method

THREE WAYS OF INQUIRY
It would appear that Parmenides conceived of three ways of inquiry: the way of truth, the way of error and the way of seeming. In our search for truth we must accept the path of truth that recognizes Being, reject the path that accepts Not-Being. When Parmenides claims: "Only one story, one road now is left: that Being is", he is declaring that this is the only way to fully understand the way of the universe.

The Way of Seeming allows examination of phenomena and how they function within the world order provided that it is not contrary to the great principle of Being and avoids the path of error. This allows him to explore the physical nature of the Universe.

PRINCIPLE OF CONTRADICTION
Parmenides was the first to use a method of inquiry that involved proving a thesis by disproving the contradictory proposition. This is its first overt use of the principle of contradiction in formal argument but it plays an important role in later formal logic and Plato's "Dialogues" owe much to this principle.

PARADOX
Zeno, a dedicated disciple (some say lover) of Parmenides further developed his master's use of presenting false argument to reveal its weakness and became famous for his use of paradox. The most famous of these, Achilles and the tortoise, is attributed to Parmenides himself. Most of the paradoxes aim to prove that Being is single, finite, motionless and unchanging by examining the absurdities of the opposite "common-sense" hypothesis that several things exist.

ACHILLES AND THE TORTOISE
- A PARADOX ON MOTION
Achilles can never overtake the tortoise. He must first reach the place from which the tortoise started. By that time the tortoise will have got some way ahead. Achilles must then make up that and again the tortoise will be ahead. He is always coming nearer, but he never catches up to it.

(Zeno quoted in Simplicius Commentary on the Physics 140 and Aristotle Physics 239)